Pet Basics & Care

We classify pets into two major categories: high-maintenance pets (HMPs) and low-maintenance or “minor” pets (LMPs).

Low-Maintenance Pets

LMPs are fish, snakes, iguanas, and other small animals. To get them, simply go into Buy Mode and buy the appropriate home in the pets sort. Once you buy and place the aquarium, cage, or whatever, have a human Sim interact with it and select “Buy [Animal]” command.

Not all LMPs can simply be bought outright; some must be hunted or otherwise found in the wild. Regardless, once you have an LMP, all you really need to do is make sure they are fed and interacted with every day or so. LMPs that go without food or social contact will die quicker, but can be released if you no longer want the pet and don’t want to clean up any corpses. Any LMP in the same room will give a buff, and will help out other meters when interacted with.

LMPs are, in practice, nothing but décor. They are conversation starters and give kids something to do, but if you’re focused on profits or skill points, they’re not worth the money or time. Still, some lifetime goals or wants revolve around them, and they are quite cheap compared to the high-maintenance pets. Also, LMPs do not count toward the family count limit, so you can have as many as you can afford.

High-Maintenance Pets

HMPs are comprised of dogs, cats, and horses. Each species brings its own benefits and drawbacks, but all of them take more time and attention than LMPs. Like with The Sims 2, HMPs count toward your family limit. That means all humans and HMPs combined must be eight or fewer; if you’re already at the cap, you can’t breed, buy, or adopt any more. However, unlike previous expansions, HMPs are completely under your control. They will act with free will regardless of your setting in the options screen, but you can order them to do literally anything you want to at any time, even if it goes against their Pet Traits.

Adoption Centers

HMPs can be acquired in several ways. The quickest way to do so is to check the newspaper or make a phone call and select “Adopt Pet from Adoption Center.” You’ll be presented with a pop up box that lists three tabs, one tab each for cats, dogs, and horses. Each tab contains eight animals, and you can mouse over any of them to get a preview of their name, gender, age, and traits.

Adopting from the adoption center is free, but the animals that start off in the adoption center have no skills or training. If one of your families sends a pet off to be adopted, and then you switch families, that second family might get a chance to adopt the first family’s trained pet. It would be a cheap way to get a trained pet, but you’re not really saving any time doing so.

Adopt From Another Family

The second option is to adopt from a neighbor. Click the newspaper, then select the command called “Check Neighborhood for Pets to Adopt.” Your Sim will check to see if any families are giving away their pets. If they are, they’ll get a special map tag in Neighborhood View. Visit the house, establish a rapport with the neighbors, and you’ll be able to walk away with your new pet!

The advantage in adopting from a neighbor is that the animal may already be trained in skills or positive behaviors. The cost is also free as well. However, you never know if neighbors actually will be giving pets away. If you’re depending on pets, such as depending on getting a horse to start the equestrian career, you may want to use the adoption center instead so you’re sure to get a pet.

Adopt a Stray

The third way to get an HMP is to pay attention to strays. You can set out food bowls and, when a stray comes by, do positive social interactions. After your relationship with the stray gets high enough, you can take the pet in and add it to your family. Like with other adopted pets, wild horses and strays may be better trained or have certain traits that are to your liking.

Adopting strays is certainly the most time-consuming method, partly because you can’t guarantee that the stray will visit you every day to work on your relationship. However, there is a way you can affect what strays come to you to minimize the waiting time for your target. In Buy Mode under the pets sort, you can buy special garden gnomes that are holding little wooden signs. Once placed, you can interact with the gnome to encourage or discourage a given class of animal to come on your lot. One gnome is for cats, one is for dogs, and the third is for everything else (including untamable wild animals such as deer or raccoons).

Let’s say your target is a stray dog that you can no longer live without. Buy each of the gnomes, and set the cat and wildlife gnomes so strays are discouraged, and the dog gnome so strays are encouraged. You still can’t guarantee that your specific dog will show up, but you are increasing the chance that any dog appears, and decreasing the chance that anything else will as well. With time and effort, you’ll be able to get the dog of your dreams!